Dorf Alt-Salenthin, around 1912

CommentaryStarting in 1909 and for several years thereafter, Lyonel Feininger visited almost every summer the village of Alt-Salenthin on Usedom Island in the Pomeranian Bay. His painting ›Dorf Alt-Salenthin‹ (Village of Alt-Salenthin), with its representation of a village street populated by just a few passersby, clearly shows the artist’s transition from his caricaturistic treatment of figures during his early years to an architectural concept influenced by Cubism. Both elements typical for Feininger’s art are present here, for instance, the occasionally abbreviated figures inscribed in the Cubist grid of the pictorial composition. On their paths, they are subjected to the space-structuring, Cubist construct of lines and fields as are the houses, with their slanted façades and roofs resembling hats. Feininger clearly aligned himself with the painting styles prevalent around 1912: engaging with the furor of Futurism that originated in Italy and captivated France and Germany, borrowing from the formal synthesis of Cubism, and turning toward the increased structuring of the color and light nuancing found in Robert Delaunay’s window pictures.